Catwoman: After Knight
by firnfiction
Summary: After exacting her revenge on the Riddler, Catwoman soon found herself occupied prancing around the streets of Gotham for more than just precious loots. Contains elements of gameplay from Batman Arkham series.
1. Roses Are Red

**Hello everyone. I'm writing a new story based on the Batman Arkham games, revolving around Catwoman. Personally I felt there was a ot of potential with playing as Catwoman, and what the game had, wasn't enough for me, as I'm a big fan of the cat. The story came from an idea of extended, additional content for the game, acting as potential plots. It will mostly be written in the perspective of cutscenes, and I'm trying to introduce some elements of gameplay more akin to Catwoman like burglary, since she is the main character. Combat scenes, however,** ** _will not be_** **elaborated.**

 **Disclaimer-**

 **I do not own any of the DC characters.**

 **Based on Arkhamverse, primarily based on the games Catwoman appears, City and Knight.**

* * *

 **Arc 1 : Roses Are Red's**

"Well, now that I've got what I came for, it's time to leave this dump," Catwoman said to herself. As the Cat leaped onto the roof of the next closest building, the factory where the Riddler was working on his Riddlerbots started to burst into flames.

"Eddie, Eddie. Did you really think I'd let you off that easily? If you were a genius then that sure is disappointing. Now... 2.73 million... What to do... What to do..?" she wondered. She looked over to the sky and sighed, "Wow, morning already? Those cheap robots Eddie built wasted my entire night." She turned her gaze towards the bat signal and wondered if Batman was done with whatever he had to do, before proceeding to prowl around the streets of Gotham. Not long later, Catwoman bumped into several groups of thugs, as usual.

"Oh no, it's the Cat again!" one thug whined.

"Ahhh," she yawned, "Usually I'd prefer for some yoga in the morning. But since you boys are here, why don't I conduct a morning exercise for all of us?" she teased as she stretched herself with her whip.

"Aw man, just when I thought we're safe now," another complained, "At least that plant freak is dead. I'd rather fight this pretty face than become some flower zombie for the rest of my life."

"Hold on," she yanked and dragged the thug over with her whip, immediately grabbing him by his collar, "What did you just say?"

"I ain't sayin' nothin' to you, freak!" he scowled. The rest of the thugs took the chance to charge towards the cat, but she was really bugged out from what she just heard and was fixated on trying to get more out of him. Catwoman dropped some caltrops, interrupting the four other thugs.

"Sorry, boys, new game. If you want to be able to go home to your mommies after this, you better tell me what you know about Ivy."

"You don't scare us, kitty cat!" yelled one. "Yeah, you can't do nothin' to us!" agreed another.

"You silly little boys like to complicate things, don't you?" sighed the feline as she readied her claws to strike.

Catwoman took out band of thugs as quickly as she wanted to know what happened to Poison Ivy. Now tell me," she picked up the same one she grabbed earlier, "What did you mean earlier? What do you know about Ivy?

"H-h-h-haven't you heard? Ivy's dead. The last she was seen was at Botanical Gardens. They said she had somethin' to do with clearin' those cloud things and fear toxins from Scarecrow. T-t-that's all I know."

"Ivy's... dead..? No... No... This can't be..." in so much shock, Catwoman released her grip on the thug who then made a run a for it. Slowly walking away, she wondered if Harley Quinn knew of this misfortune. "How is Harl taking this?"

* * *

"Bruce? Bruce? Can you hear me?" the feline called through her mouthpiece receiving only static as a response. "Crap. I guess I have to go see it myself." Catwoman set her mark on the Botanical Gardens, as the thug mentioned earlier that Poison Ivy was last seen there. "Botanical Gardens. That's quite a walk from here. And I think there might still be some Militia around the area, and I don't think they're going to give me an easy entry. Hmm... Even today a girl can't depend on a man to do anything. If I want to get inside the gardens, I might need to have to face these men. Kitty's gotta get the right toys before playing the games." Catwoman slid her googles on and made her way back to her apartment, the one in Gotham of course.

There were a lot more tools in this apartment than what she had in Arkham City. The cat proceeded to stock up on more caltrops. _A lot_ more. "I didn't have a lot of these babies in Arkham, that wasn't fun," she said to herself. Her times in Arkham taught her how limited that tool was, and knowing she'd have to face incredibly armored enemies, she couldn't afford to risk it. She brought along so much she won't even run out. Next, she went ahead to pick up some explosives she stole from other of Batman's enemies. "Oh, Oswald and Harvey always have the best gifts for me. Too bad they aren't the generous type though." She scanned through the room and thought, "These guys are heavily armed. And they come in big numbers. I'd have to ambush one individual a few times just to take him down. I'm going to need to find better gear claw through their suits and to protect myself against their bullets." Out of options, she decided that she had to forge some sort of alliance with someone. "These nine lives won't protect this little kitty from guns, do they?" Catwoman figured since she couldn't reach Batman, the next option was to approach Nightwing, plus. he did have a few run-ins with the late Poison Ivy back in Bludhaven.

"Hey, Holly, you there?" called the sultry woman through her mouthpiece as she hopped onto her windowsill.

"Yeah, Selina. I'm here. What's up?" replied Holly.

"I'm low on some gadgets right now, could you help me restock them?" requested the cat as she accessed the best route to get to the Gardens. "I've got some things to attend to, I don't think I could gather them myself for the time being."

"Yeah sure, Selina. Everything will be settled before you even know it."

"Purrfect. I left some cash on the cabinet by the shoe rack. Feel free to spend it on yourself too, honey. Love you," kissed the feline as she proceeded to skip through the rooftops of Gotham effortlessly like her personal playground.

Catwoman found herself overlooking the Gotham City Police Department. "Okay, according to those guys down there, Nightwing came in here." With her goggles on, she scanned through the building searching for the young lad. "Ah... There you are, my favourite boy," she said, watching him from the distance as he juggled through goons at the rooftop. "Wait a minute, now who's that poor bird trapped inside the elevator..? Hmm... Ozzy? Wow, he definitely hired the wrong idiots to help him escape," she mocked. "What now? Should I make a grand entrance now or should I just wait?" she questioned herself, considering the possible outcomes. "If I appear now as he tries to capture Penguin, he might think I'm here to help free Penguin. Ah.. It's already gonna be hard to get him to work with me, all the more I should minimise looking like the villain, right?" Catwoman took a glance to another part of the roof. Where the group of goons that Nightwing just took down, laid several cartons of goods. "Mmmm, look at that. Looks like Ozzy and friends brought along some gifts! I guess I'll just wait out a little bit, then I'll help myself to some of those little precious!"

The cat climbed and crawled her up to the edge of the elevator which Penguin was held in. She stayed behind unnoticed until Nightwing brought Penguin away before she made her way to the cartons. She took a peek at the ones that were already opened, "Let's see... What do we have here? Guns? Guns? And more guns? Gee, these boys and their firearms. How could I pounce around with these weighing me down." So focused on looting, Catwoman did not notice that Penguin's men from the inside the building were making their way upstairs.

"Hey, look! It's the cat," yelled one of the guys, "She's tryin' to steal our stuff! Get her!"

"Well, Selina," Catwoman murmured, "if you wanna win the prize, you gotta beat the losers." Swiftly, she pounced into action and brought the men their second round of defeat, after which, she searched the latter for any good tools she could bring along. After a few moments of scavenging, Catwoman left GCPD, but not before stealing some throwing knives and one of those stun batons, which seemed to be a really popular weapon with those goons.

"Enough wasting time here. Time to for this kitty to catch little wing boy."


	2. Curiosity Kills Cats

After sending Penguin back to where he belonged, Nightwing whispered to himself, "Ah, Gotham, who would've thought I'd be back here? And you..." he took a step onto the streets of Gotham again and gazed at the sky, where the Bat signal would shine, "What is going on with you?" The young hero proceeded to make his way back to Bludhaven, but paused in his tracks as he sensed someone carefully trailing him. "Come on," he teased, "If you were gonna surprise me, at least be a little more creative."

"My, my," the woman in black responded, "still as observant I see? It's no surprise if you do indeed take over Bats."

"Not happening," he replied, obviously a little irked by that comment. "What do you want, Selina?"

Catwoman flirtatiously circled around the boy before asking whatever he knew about Ivy, switching to a more serious tone, "Ivy, tell me, what do you know about her?"

"I don't know why you're asking me this," he said, pushing the cat away, "Okay, I'm not here for a holiday, I only came to do what I have to do. I'm not interested in tangling up in your-"

"Is it true? Is she dead?" Catwoman interrupted.

"Ivy's what..?" mumbled the lad, slightly in disbelief. Memories of him capturing the green-skinned lady flashed repeatedly, "When..? How did she..? It wasn't Bruce... Right?"

"I don't know. I came to you because I thought you had some idea. I heard you were the one who brought her here from Bludhaven. Well, it doesn't matter. I'm still gonna need your help to find some answers. We gotta get to the Botan-"

"Like I said, I'm not staying here for long. You've always had your ways to get your 'answers'."

"You'd know if I could, I would have done it by now. But here's the problem, this little kitty isn't powerfu enough to bring down the army over at the Botanical Gardens. A dashing young hero can definitely help a woman get rid of the bad guys, right?"

Although hesitant to assist a former enemy, Nightwing agreed to help the cat, only with one condition, "I'll help you, but I'm not gonna stay for long. And when I'm gone, I better not be called back here to play cat and mouse with you."

Finally getting the response she wanted, Catwoman released a sigh of relieved, "That's a purromise," she mocked. "Well, see you there, pretty boy," before sliding her goggles on and prancing off towards the Gardens.

Approaching the Gardens, Catwoman surveyed the area from a distance, picking out the safe spots and those which are heavily armed. "Dick, can you hear me?"

"I hear you, Selina," he dragged, "What do you see?"

"There's too many of them here. I don't think I can even get through without being-" she paused. "Oh no..."

"What..? What is it?"

"You've gotta be kidding me. I thought I destroyed those pests."

"Um, you know, if you wanted to talk to yourself you didn't have to turn the mic on right?"

"Sorry. Looks like the Militia have gotten their hands on some of Eddie's lame robots."

"Okay? They shouldn't be a problem to you, right? Since you said you've destroyed them before?"

"Yeah well, it took me an entire night and almost some of my lives to eliminate those things. And some of them I couldn't even come near. I had to get Bats to help me."

Again, irritated that he had just been compared to Batman, Nightwing replied, "If this is really just another trick to get me to replace him..."

"Okay enough chit chat, this kitty's been spotted and you need to get here quick."

Without any time to waste, Catwoman immediately attacked, pouncing and clawing through the closest Riddlerbot first. "You had better reward me with more money once I'm done with all of this, Eddie."

"Selina? Selina? Dang it!" Nightwing cursed, "You just had to be impatient and get yourself in trouble. Seriously, when do these criminals ever learn."

Finally catching up to the cat, he called out to her, "Need some help?"

"Hmm, this girl can protect herself," she replied, smashing the last of the Riddlerbots. "Now," she caught a breath, "here's what's gonna happen."

Nightwing came closer as the cat relayed her plans. "We gotta get there through here, and then from there we gotta get there. But I noticed heavy activity there and that's where you come in. Eventually, I'll get over there by that huge tree. Something about that tree is calling out to me." A little dazed as she stared at the tree, Catwoman thought out loud, "Pam and I have had our differences. And yeah sure, she's not always the friendliest, but she's still done some good to me. She was one of the few powerful women I knew I could depend on, even if she wanted to feed me to her plants. Hmm... Funny isn't it?" she smiled, as she regretted her actions towards the red-haired woman back in Arkham.

Noticing a tear in her eye, Nightwing couldn't bear to rush her, despite wanting to get this episode over and done with. "R...Ready when you are," he reached out to her shoulder.

"Right. Let's go, I can't wait to see what pretty new flowers Ivy has grown."

* * *

"I know the old man sees you as an ally but, so care to remind me again why I'm about to do all this extra work for notorious scammer, to look for someone who probably blames all of mankind for the death of plants during fall?" questioned the man as he regretted having made his way here.

"Hmm, you know what? Maybe it's better if you don't be the next Batman. You talk way too much," responded the cat. "Right, listen up," she added on to her plan, "these soldiers with guns and heavy armours, not my type of fun. I'm going to stick to what I do best."

"Which is what? Stealing?" Nightwing commented.

"Sneaking," the lady sneered, "but yes, that too. And you, can keep to the first job you had with Batman. Providing the assistance." Pointing to some of the structures the Militia have set up, she explained, "I'll have to get up to higher ground to reach the tree. In the meantime, you can leave Eddie's robots to me."

"Um firstly, wow, rude. Secondly, what about those you said you couldn't get near?"

"It's nothing fancy, but, cat's got some tricks up her sleeve," she smirked. She learned from the earlier confrontation that overloading the robots with stun baton could reboot their system temporarily, letting her the chance to quickly take them out. "Some of these robots and machines are remotely controlled in those towers. While I'm getting up there I'll look around to shut them down. That way, I'll also be helping to stop these maniacs from destroying more of Gotham. Fair?"

"Meh. Not really my concern, but if it makes you believe that I would trust you more, then okay? Go ahead, I don't know?"

Catwoman, no longer amused by small talk, rolled her eyes before prancing off to the nearest hiding spot. Nightwing whispered to himself, "Well, Dick, it's show time."

This time, it was all about the cat burglary skills. With this much danger going around, the Cat could not risk being spotted and subsequently be ambushed by an army of heavily armed men and highly intelligent robot. "Right," she thought to herself, "Other than just being stealthy, I'm gonna have to look around for access cards to those computers running Eddie's program. I'm also gonna take down those boys with guns before they spot Dick and cause a commotion. You better keep it quiet down there, bird boy." Using her Thief Vision, Catwoman confirmed there were 4 computers that she would have to hack, which means she had to collect 12 cards in total from the wandering soldiers in the area. Based on her findings also, she counted 8 shooters were in the area, also sneaking around. With that, her current mission for the Botanical Gardens entrance was to take down all the shooters before they could get to Nightwing, and to shut down the robots in the area.

All was going well until she entered the main base to meddle with the last computer. A loud siren wailed, drawing the robots and soldiers to the tower she was in. The tower was 4 stories high, but it did not stop the enemies from flooding in. Thankfully, the woman efficiently got rid of the shooters and most of the robots. If she hadn't done so, she would not even have had a chance. Surveying the tower, she managed to locate vents, grates, ceiling mesh and ledges she could play around with.

"Boy, am I glad you took the time to help clear the area," thanked her ally for the night, dropping into the room she was in, "These guys aren't very welcoming, are they?"

"Well, this party is about to be over," she replied, readying her claws and whip, while Nightwing held out his Escrima sticks. Catwoman dreaded the idea of having to deal with the difficult militia soldiers, so she decided she had to resort to more playful tricks, like stunning, aerial attacks and disarming them. It was also helpful incorporate some good thievery skills into takedowns. Upon getting into momentum, she was able to improvise some new takedowns and combos to counter the various types of enemy. Snatch Combo, which she would steal and quickly utilise an enemy's weapon before pouncing off. This worked best when she could use the bigger, bulky weapons against heavily armoured soldiers. Shock Combo, allowing her to finish off her enemy with the stun baton she looted earlier. Directing this combo onto a robot also enabled her to override it. There was also her Swing Takedown, in which the Cat could perform a loud takedown on an enemy upon having gained momentum mid-air.

Working together with Nightwing also granted her the option to perform dual takedown, despite the unlikely partnership. The number of enemy to overcome was mad, but not as insane as the robots the Ridder had produced in his factory. Slowly but surely, the duo managed to reduce the number to just a handful and eventually took down the entire lot.

"We got them down now. But I'd rather make my way to that tree quick before more of these scums come back," Catwoman suggested, catching her breath. "Thanks for the help, handsome."

"I'm not leaving just yet, especially after all this hard work," scoffed the young man. "Besides, I'm curious to know what's the deal with Ivy, too."

"Hmm? You know, usually the cat is the one that is curious," she teased, as she caressed his chin cheekily. "And they say it kills the cat…" Catwoman got back to her serious demeanour and proceeded to finish shutting down the last computer. Not only did she turn off the Riddlerbots and any other machinery from the Militia, she also managed to study the quickest route to the tree.

"Wow, these fools have been trying to force their way through to the roots too, huh?" she noticed upon studying their blueprints. "Pamela could have let all hell break lose. Now, to that wretched tree."


End file.
